


Could Have Been

by steelfeet



Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Andrew is a good boyfriend, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scott is kind of a terrible person, Zach just really loves Andrew, so many feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 10:51:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13902498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steelfeet/pseuds/steelfeet
Summary: After Scott's confession, Zachariah is not OK. Luckily, he has Andrew to help him through.





	Could Have Been

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know if this is good, but you know what, I needed to write this one because I have way too many emotions about this dumb game and I wanted more closure for Zachariah after the whole "Confession" quest. Me and all 82,000 of my feelings will just be here in our pit of emotion if you need us.
> 
> (P.S. Scott is definitely the worst of Zachariah's 18 dads.)

Midnight in Mutant Valley could best be described as peaceful, Zachariah decided. Most people were asleep; the few that were still awake and working were going about their business quietly. No taverns here with bar brawls spilling into the streets, no strip clubs open late. Just the wind through the canyons and the stars overhead.

He wished he could soak up some of that calm, that tranquility. 

A few hours ago, Scott had finally broken down and told him everything. About his son, about the mutation, about Mark Reacher, about his experiments on Zachariah and Andrew. 

The young technomancer didn't know what to think. He couldn't imagine what his life would have been if Scott had made different choices; it was impossible for him to even consider his life without technomancy. A life without the Source? Without Sean and Ian? Who would he be now, if things hadn't happened the way that they had? 

But he still wasn't happy about what Scott did. All these years, he'd thought Scott loved him as a son, but now he felt like...like a project. A project born out of Scott's own selfish need to fix the unfixable. 

_He could have killed us, me and Andrew,_ Zachariah thought, clenching his fists. _And all these years, all this time, and he never planned on telling me. I had to **make** him tell me._

Something else occurred to him, and he stopped in his tracks. 

_Andrew...his powers were so strong they were nearly uncontrollable. The masters said he had the strongest readings ever recorded, at least in Abundance. But it almost killed him. What Scott did to him almost **killed him.**_

Abruptly, he turned on his heel and started back to the room he and Andrew were sharing. By the time he got there, he was nearly running. 

When he pushed aside the blanket serving as their door, he was breathing a little hard. Andrew was lying in bed, his prosthetic placed off to the side while he slept. Zachariah leaned up against the workbench and dropped his head into his hands.

_Andrew could have died, and I never would have found him again._

"...Zach?" 

He jerked his head up to see Andrew sitting up in bed, looking very awake and slightly alarmed, which was pretty fair given that his boyfriend had just burst into their shared dwelling in the middle of the night looking like he'd run halfway across the valley. Zachariah knew he should say something, explain, but when he opened his mouth he could feel a sob rising in his throat. 

"Zach? Are you...OK? Did something happen?"

"I--it's just--" the welling tears choked him before he could finish the sentence, and this time a sob _did_ make it out of his throat.

Suddenly Andrew was there, in front of him, reaching for his hand. Zachariah let him take it and pull him over to the bed. 

"Sit down, OK? Let me just..." Andrew gently helped his boyfriend out of his jacket, boots and technomancer gloves, then settled them both back against the pillows as best he could with only the one arm. 

"Sorry," Zachariah managed to whisper, dropping his head onto Andrew's shoulder. 

"Hey, nothing to be sorry for. Unless you did something in the last few hours I don't know about?" 

Zachariah swallowed hard. "I...talked to Scott."

"About why he was out in that canyon with Alan, right?" Andrew stroked his hair soothingly, and Zach felt something warm and tender prickling in his chest. 

"Yeah, and I...got a lot more than I was expecting, I guess." Haltingly, he explained what Scott had told him, curling against Andrew's side as he went on. 

After he had hit all the relevant points,the two of them sat there in the dark, saying nothing. Andrew had pulled Zachariah tighter to him when he told him what Scott had said to him about why he had stayed so close with the young technomancer for much of his life.

_"You, Zachariah...became my only chance for success...my only chance to regain my past glory...so I kept close to you for all these years."_

"Zach...I'm so sorry," Andrew murmured, finally. "I know he was like a father to you. And...you thought he really cared about you."

Zachariah wiped his eyes. "Yeah. All this time I was just...a thing to him. Maybe he did start to care about me eventually, but obviously it was never far from his mind that he wanted to use me to fix his past failures. But to me, that's not even the worst part."

Andrew pressed a kiss to Zachariah's temple. "So...what _is_ the worst part?"

Zachariah straightened up so that he could look Andrew in the face. 

"Andrew, when he did those tests on us, he was only guessing. We were experiments. He could have killed us. And he almost did! Whatever he did to our genes, it was so powerful you almost couldn't control it! You could have died, Andrew, and he wouldn't have even cared, and I wouldn't have been able to be with you. We would never have been able to have this, what we have right here. And I just...I don't want to think about a world where you died for some asshole's vanity project!"

A stunned silence followed. 

Andrew was watching him with wide eyes, mouth slightly agape. 

"You're upset for _me_? The guy who was basically your dad turned out to be using you as a genetic experiment and tried to trade you in to Alan for a ticket back to Abundance, and you're upset that he experimented on me and it worked so well I turned out really powerful and hurt myself?"

"Yes!" Zachariah's jaw was locked in that stubborn way that all his friends knew meant there was no arguing with him. He was looking at Andrew like he would face down the entire ASC if it meant Andrew was safe and happy. 

"You...I can't believe you, you idiot. What did I do to deserve you?"

Zachariah's stormy expression cleared, and he smirked. "Something terrible, probably."

"Shut up," Andrew muttered, rolling his eyes. He sighed. "It's probably almost two in the morning, Zach. Let's try and get some sleep, hm?"

"Sure," Zachariah replied, settling into the bed and realizing how worn out he was from the evening's emotional rollercoaster. "Thanks for listening. And sorry I kept you up. And probably scared you when I ran in here." 

"It's OK, Zach. You know you're allowed to, you know, let me take care of you sometimes, right?"

"...I guess." 

Andrew rolled his eyes again in the darkness, reaching over with his one hand to weave his fingers through his boyfriend's. Zachariah squeezed back gently. 

"...hey, Zach?" 

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"...yeah. I love you, too."


End file.
